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My respect to Bulgaria or France '12 (whichever came first) for applying a completely new theme to Switcheroo and making it cohesive.

The UK Bruce Pathfinder is the only one that appears to be definitively larger than the U.S. version. I like it.

(And we finally found a game that Indonesia didn't try to replicate super accurately.)

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While the Switcheroo sets have a ton of differences between them and some it's hard to tell what game it's supposed to be, the Pathfinder sets keep the same core look just with some size and color variations and some other alterations. Germany's is the only one that could be mistaken for something else. Thailand's looks like the US set if it was shrunk in the dryer. The Russian set looks like it was designed by kindergartners. The UK Bruce set makes me think of that board game Perfection.

I never really liked the head-on jib shot they use nowadays (like the Indonesia screengrab), I always preferred the angled version Bart Eskander would use (like the Australia screengrab). I get that the head-on version shows the numbers better but putting the camera too far above the set makes the game look smaller and less impressive, and I always preferred the shots where the cam was closer to the contestant's eye level.

But if they did something really neat like a direct overhead shot on the French version, I bet I would change my tune real quickly.

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Quote from: Bill Todman

"The sign of a good game, is when you don't have to explain it every day. The key is not simplicity, but apparent simplicity. Password looks like any idiot could have made it up, but we have 14 of our people working on that show. There is a great complexity behind the screen. It requires great work to keep it simple."

Switcheroo: -I like Belgium's idea of having the number further away from the prices. That way, it's a toned down version of Race Game. -The chalkboard motif in Bulgaria and 2012 France is cool but it looks too old-school. -Odd how Colombia puts the number blocks way at the bottom. -1996 and 2001 France remind me of a radio. Maybe that's the point? And maybe it's just me, but 2009 looks like a microwave. -Once again, Indonesia gets the award for most similar to US set. I do prefer this timer to ours, though. -I would pick the 1999 Italian set over the other two because of all the open space. The letters and the board are both separate instead of on the same prop. -Netherlands went through some wacky changes, and for what reason? The brown and green scheme is great because it matches the turntable. I suppose you could say the same for 1990, but there's a lot of yellow there. They finally end up with some sort of...I don't know what. The 1987 prop is best. -UK Leslie has an ok prop. It's not exactly bad, but not the best. The heart-shaped board and color and the cursive writing make it look like it belongs on The Dating Game or some other such thing.

Pathfinder: -Top three are, from third, 2000s Italy, Germany, Russia. UK Bruce is enormous and 1998 Italy is tiny. Also interesting how many versions start on a square other than the center and that the center is blank. Perhaps there is a bit of an advantage for the eight squares touching the center, in those cases where the center is blank.

(By the way, 1989 Australia has the best turntable design I've seen thus far. The textured dollar sign background make it stand out. Nice!)

I'd love to see a video of France's Hi-Lo set. It looks like they physically put the podiums the prizes are on higher or lower. Is that the same thing going on with Bulgaria and Portugal?

Penny Ante without the giant lights looks BLAND. I probably shouldn't pass judgement on their games without seeing the way they've played, but I'm so grateful for our crazy set.

Nobody's found a way to improve on Bullseye. And what's that hypno-disk in the middle of Colombia's Now or Then? Trippy.

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Quote from: Bill Todman

"The sign of a good game, is when you don't have to explain it every day. The key is not simplicity, but apparent simplicity. Password looks like any idiot could have made it up, but we have 14 of our people working on that show. There is a great complexity behind the screen. It requires great work to keep it simple."

You must have gotten only one chance in the UK Joe version of Pick-a-Pair I'd assume with just four products.

Unless the game is set up differently, where there is actually only one pair out of the four items. If that is the case, you could still have two turns, as if the first two didn't match, you wouldn't know if one of the first two matched one of the unseen two, or if the two unseen ones matched each other.

That would make the play of the game much more like Take Two, the only difference being you need two with the same price, not two that add up to a set amount.

"The sign of a good game, is when you don't have to explain it every day. The key is not simplicity, but apparent simplicity. Password looks like any idiot could have made it up, but we have 14 of our people working on that show. There is a great complexity behind the screen. It requires great work to keep it simple."

Hi Lo: It looks like a few countries used a scale motif for their set which I'm not sure fits the game too much. Most of the sets are just too busy looking also. UK Joe's set looks like it was taken out of the wild west.

Pick a Pair: Looks like Germany and Italy were the only ones that had the game while we had the ferris wheel set. France's using a music motif is interesting. It appears Pick a Pair was a SP game for UK Leslie and Bruce.

Now or Then: Surprised more countries haven't played it since it's been around for a while. Was Columbia trying to hypnotize contestants playing it? Germany's and Moldova's (that's an early Then date) looks like the set is just pasted onto the turntable wall.

Bullseye: Also surprised to not see more Bullseye. Every set looks just about exactly like ours.

Penny Ante: Looks like it was a SP game in the UK.

Hit Me: So only Italy played it and they called it Blackjack. The second set is pretty nice. Was it not used much internationally because of the gambling inspiration or because of the gameplay?

Super Saver: Only in Italy also and it was still played after we stopped playing it. The color scheme is the real difference from our set.

Vend o Price: Does the Thailand version have similar sound effects and the doors opening to reveal the product quantity like ours?

Now or Then: Surprised more countries haven't played it since it's been around for a while.

It appears to have been played on Atinale al Precio, too...Marco Antonio Regil used to have a whole bunch of pictures from the show on his website, and even though it wasn't labeled, one of them was pretty clearly and Now....and Then board. It was apparently played in the first season of Italy's show, too, although I've never seen pictures of it.